A crack in the credit hour? Amy Laitinen provides some context behind the U.S. Department of Education’s letter to colleges, encouraging the creation of degree programs that measure competencies, rather than credit hours. Laitinen, in conjunction with Education Sector, released a report last fall that explained how competency-based education works—and why it makes more sense than awarding crediContinue Reading »

How to measure learning. New America Foundation’s Amy Laitinen writes about the “curious birth and harmful legacy of the credit hour.” Education Sector earlier co-released a paper with Laitinen that outlines the problems of measuring learning based on credits, or seat time, and instead encourages a higher education system that measures learning based on competencies. (The Chronicle of Higher EdContinue Reading »

Identifying potential dropouts in middle school. A Louisiana school is seeing reduced suspension and failure rates, plus a higher attendance rate, thanks to—officials say—a data-driven program that flags students who show signs of falling behind. (PBS NewsHour)

Who will hold colleges accountable? Kevin Carey argues for elimination of the “antiquated credit hour.” How else can we measure Continue Reading »

Measuring learning, not seat time. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching will reconsider the credit hour, something Amy Laitinen pushed for in one of our recent reports. (Carnegie Foundation)

Our entire massive multibillion-dollar federal financial aid system runs on credit hours. Credit hours are used to determine a student’s full- or part-time status, which changes the amount of aid an individual can receive. But as we note in our report Cracking the Credit Hour, credit hours simply measure time, not learning. Despite the trillions of dollars spent by students and taxpayers on higContinue Reading »

As anyone who has ever attended college probably realizes, the currency of degrees and credentials are credit hours. But few people know where the credit hour comes from. Today the New America Foundation and Education Sector have released Cracking the Credit Hour, a report that covers the credit hour’s history from the days of Andrew Carnegie to the latest “credit hour” regulation. This new poContinue Reading »

Unfortunately due to some strange Internet issue, I wasn’t able to watch the live or archived version of today’s House hearing on accreditation and program length and so I can’t comment specifically on what was said. But what strikes me while re-reading the various submitted statements is how it seems like there really are two distinct issues at play here.